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IN VIEW
RISING TO THE
Special report by Ged Henderson A Senator worker keeps products moving
From large corporations to family-run concerns, Lancashire’s manufacturers have answered the call and turned their efforts to the national fight against coronavirus.
Factories have swiftly switched production to help deliver personal protective equipment (PPE) for the NHS. Others have been making parts for vital ventilators or supporting the creation of the new critical care Nightingale Hospitals.
The Altham-based Senator Group delivered around 7,000 items of furniture to the new hospitals in Birmingham, Manchester and existing NHS facilities. Further orders have also been completed for the Nightingale Hospital in Glasgow.
Robert Mustoe, managing director of the furniture firm, said workers and suppliers were “doing their bit” to keep its factories moving and products flowing.
He added: “We are extremely proud to work with the NHS and to be able to support them at this time and we thank our staff for the extraordinary effort they are putting into their work to fulfil these vital orders.”
Darwen-based engineering and fabrication company WEC Group joined other UK manufacturers in the national effort to build more ventilators for the NHS as well as key medical equipment for the Nightingale Hospitals.
Despite the new challenging lockdown restrictions and social distancing rules it repurposed some of its manufacturing facilities to help the fight against the virus.
That includes producing parts for the VentilatorChallengeUK consortium, tasked with producing 10,000 ventilators to the NHS on a tight timeframe.
The consortium, spearheaded by some of Britain’s best-known companies, including BAE Systems and Airbus, has leveraged its significant UK industrial, technology and engineering expertise to rise up to this mammoth task.
In situations
like this, times of national emergency, everyone has to play their part
BAE’s role has been to help ramp up production of a proven ventilator design, which has been supplied by a leading UK medical company to help those suffering from the virus.
WEC’s laser engineering division manufactured and dispatched its first order of parts just 24 hours after receiving an initial inquiry. It then moved on to larger batch production.
Group commercial director Wayne Wild said: “After superb first response from our marketing and sales teams to offer our full range of
services to the new ventilator supply chain, we’ve managed to secure some key contracts for the NHS and we’re very proud to help the cause in lots of different areas by producing parts and equipment to fight the virus.
“We are also immensely proud of our team who worked around the clock to meet a hugely ambitious timeframe.”
The group has also been working for an existing client to manufacture key medical equipment for Birmingham’s Nightingale Hospital at the NEC. That included parts that were fabricated in just four working days.
Burnley-based uPVC window system company VEKA also re-opened part of its factory to supply a material essential in the manufacture of building components used in establishing the temporary large-scale critical care hospitals.
Meanwhile, Padiham-headquartered What More UK has retooled and switched its production from plastic storage boxes to the creation of much-needed PPE.
Managing director Andy Holt announced the business would be producing parts for safety visors at a rate of 60,000 week “until the country has enough”.
One member of staff, commenting on Twitter, summed up the feeling of the workforce, saying: “I can’t remember feeling this proud. In normal times it’s just a piece of plastic. Now it’s a lifesaver.”
CHALLENGE
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